Diljit Dosanjh to star in human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra's biopic

Punjabi actor and singer Diljit Dosanjh has announced that he will be playing the role of Jaswant Singh Khalra in a film about the latter’s life.

Khalra was a human rights activist who investigated the disappearance of countless young Sikh youths following the anti-Sikh riots in 1984. He worked on the cremation of unidentified bodies of men killed in fake encounters. In 1995, Khalra disappeared and was murdered. Six policemen were later convicted for his killing. 

The actor shared a post by Khalra’s wife, Paramjit Kaur Khalra. The post lays out that the family has given permission to Dosanjh and Honey Trehan to make the film on Jaswant Singh Khalra’s life. She mentioned that although several people have been interested in making a film on the life of the activist, most of them wanted to crowd-fund the project, which the family was not in favour of doing.

She has also explicitly stated that the family will be associated with the film but only to review the script and provide inputs. “We will also review the final movie once complete for the final go/no-go,” she said. She ended by highlighting the concerns about the misrepresentation of the Sikh Sangharsh movement and stated, “We will try our best to provide feedback to the film production team and keep the narrative on the right track.”

Although Khalra largely remains a forgotten icon in Punjab, a park in California City has been named after him.